


Huh... neat

by Please_help



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: The knight can speak, Time Travel Fix-It, varying upload schedule
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28487127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Please_help/pseuds/Please_help
Summary: A fight with the radiance goes pretty bad, and now the knight must do everything again but now back in time.New friends are hopefully made.Also I have a varying upload schedule, so don’t expect constant updates.EDIT: I should clarify, this fic is my own self experiment; basically what I mean is that this story is based off working with ideas that aren't used as much as they should. An example being charms, I don’t think that there should be a set amount of charms in Hallownest, instead I focus on interpreting my own into this story; so far only two original charms have made a comeback, but that’s all I’m planning on doing.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 59





	1. Awaken

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy the first chapter, take a guess at what next I have planned

It was finally done, their nail did one last slash against the radiance’s body before she let out a scream of absolute agony, they could feel their form change, the complete unification of void given form, every shade all working in tandem to finally put an end to the blinding light.

They looked upon the goddess that once seemed untouchable, she writhed in their grip, spitting out curses in an ancient tongue that they didn’t fully understand; rearing arms they didn’t know they had, before finally letting loose a barrage of punches, making full contact with her body.

Small pieces of dream leaked from her useless form, she was probably only one last hit away from finally ending the infection, just one from freeing their birth cursed sibling. All these years have been leading up to this moment, from their birth in the abyss, to their final ascension within godhome.

Her head moved to look at them, her look caused them to stutter in their movements altogether, why were they stopping? It was nearly over. But something was wrong, she was smiling, her eyes seemed to flash more dangerously, it was wrong.

Then everything stopped, time froze, both gods looked at one another, the light and void. Then, slowly at first, it was all going back, as if someone had just hit the replay button on a t.v remote, then it began going quicker and their fight was going backwards.

By the time they realised what was happening it was all too late, she was no longer in their reach, every attack was being undone, their godly form was no longer apart of them, it was all going wrong and they couldn’t do anything to stop it. 

Brief moments popped up in front of their empty eyes, a cave of mushrooms, what seemed like tidal waves of spiders charging at them, a blue lake, dirt mouth, ever unchanging wastes that took up most of sight. Then it all went black.

Then it stopped, the queasy feeling they got from the radiance’s stunt seemed to drift away completely, and a warm encasing seemed to cover their body, they wouldn’t mind sleeping here.

NO, they couldn’t rest, they couldn’t forget their duty. Slowly, they rested their hands against the thing surrounding them and pushed, a crack, they added more force, another crack, tearing their head back they smashed their horns against the nearly destroyed surface, finally the wall was destroyed, and they were ready for whatever sick idea the radiance had planned.

With maybe a bit to much show they leapt from their confines, looking around with as much concentration as they could, before they stopped, before them lay a sea of eggs, pitch black and looking nearly ready for hatching, they knew these eggs, it was the exact same thing they were born from.

They stumbled back, no, this was wrong, this must be some kind of nightmare that the radiance sent them too, before those thoughts stopped, the radiance couldn’t even control nightmares, much less send someone to one. 

That meant that this was real, the radiance managed to actually turn back time itself, of course, of course she could do such a thing. If they actually were able too they would be laughing as if this was some kind of joke, but no, the only joke was thinking they could actually do anything to a goddess.

They retreated back to their now open eggshell, they just wanted to stop, to finally put an end to this fighting and finally move on with their life, why was such a thing implausible. They just felt so completely useless at that very moment, they barely noticed the small black tears dripping down their face.

They don’t know how long they were there before they got up, wiping away the tears and beginning their search, it quickly became apparent that they were the first hatched, the first time this happened they were one of the last to hatch, having to crawl through a sea of body’s before they even got a chance of climbing the abyss towards the light.

It was quite unnerving to be in such a place when it’s just quiet, before there was always something, whether that be the creatures that somehow survived living in such a place, or even the shades of other vessels always making groaning noises, now, it was just them.

Of course they had to find a way to keep themselves busy, so first they checked their inventory, almost all of it was gone, whether that be geo, or even most of their charms, surprisingly sharp shadow and void heart were both still there. Sharp shadow was one they didn’t personally use a lot, but it worked just well before they could find anymore, who knows, maybe there are some long forgotten ones left here in the abyss. 

Next they checked their spells, nothing, as they expected, it still hurt to know all their work was mostly reset, they stopped, what else were they missing? Before it hit them, the dream nail! Reeling back they grasped for any kind recognisable sensation, everything went quiet and still around them, before a familiar light filled the dark surrounding them, yes! they couldn’t be more happy with this outcome of events, it just proved the point that they were the true welder.

—————————

They spent most of their time trying to figure out how they managed to escape last time, because they sure as hell didn’t get through the door keeping them all locked here; not a rock was left unturned in their search for freedom. 

Which is probably why when searching a large amount of rock fell on top of them, “AAARGH!” They wiggled until they were free from its clutches before sitting down and letting out a sigh and healing up their wounds with soul before their body froze, did they just yell in pain? That... was not something they should be able to do from what they knew, sitting upright they just wanted to test it again, “blimey”, they spoke without hesitance before they reeled back “WHAT THE FU-“.

It took way longer than It should’ve to finally comprehend the idea that they could communicate, actually speak, with vocals, making noise with a mouth that they could only eat with before. For a whole hour they just lay there before they even had the courage to speak again, and even then it was just to make random noises.

Who knew vibrations going across your throat could feel so good, and the pale king was really keeping them away from this sensation? Disgraceful, just another reason to hit him harder the next time they meet.

From all their journeys across the world when they wandered the wastes they had picked up quite a few interesting ways to speak, accents were quite odd by themselves, but considering the fact they never stayed long enough to fully grasp the whole language they ended up just taking little pieces with them when journeying until they could finally understand speaking, of course they assumed it would never really help considering they couldn’t talk at the time, but now they could.

And it was going to be wonderful, absolutely wonderful.


	2. Pitch black wonders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New spells! I wanted to be able to create something new, and I didn’t really want to recreate spells already in the game, also! Going back in time gives me lots of new ideas to play with, so hopefully it works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I finally figured out how to make it say 2/? Instead of 2/2, thank you to everyone in the comments! There are a lot of options to sort by so it took longer than I thought it would.

They probably shouldn’t just be wandering aimlessly through the abyss, but what else could they do! They’d taken to using rocks to draw maps on, every nook and cranny was marked down on old withered stone, and it wasn’t like they could get company anyway, from what they could assume most of the eggs were months away from hatching.

Of course having a map so separated by multiple pieces of stone made it quite hard to properly get out any use, but it was their only way to get out! They’d already gone to both rooms on either end of the hatchery, whether that be the room they had to scream in for the abyssal shriek spell, or even the far end with the lighthouse.

In fact, they were standing by the lighthouse right now, leaning against its walls and just trying to come up with ANY idea of what to do, they shifted their stance slightly to get into a more comfortable position before realising a piece of their map came undone with their movements, barreling towards the void-sea.

Quickly they placed the other pieces of map back down before they ran as fast as they could towards the one that got away, it was already so close; just before it hit the black substance they managed to clutch it back, letting out a sigh of relief before a chill overtook them, the arm they used to catch the stone was being tightly held in place by a void tendril.

They didn’t know what to do, because this SHOULDN’T be happening, checking themselves over just to make sure, the void heart was still stuck to their chest. Another tendril joined the first, but instead of just grabbing on it pulled them towards the ocean, then a third, until they could barely see their arm anymore.

They tried to keep themselves steady, letting their other arm grab onto the ground with their premature claws, their legs doing nearly the same. Eventually with enough force they were able to level the tendrils in strength alone, though it was incredible tiring to do so; then everything went still, a stillness that basically screamed DANGER.

The silence was cut off by a rumble all around, then something grasped their body, they didn’t have enough time to see what is was before that same feeling covered their head, pulling them towards the void and they couldn’t stop it from doing so.

When they opened their eyes again they saw nothing, they were floating in a perpetual black of void, twisting their head they were greeted by the exact same view in every direction. They waited, nothing seemed to happen, and their body wasn’t being desecrated so that was a plus.

“YOU” a voice that wasn’t theirs rang out, “ARE YOU THE BEING THAT BROUGHT ME BACK?” The voice rang in their head, what did they mean brought back? Who was this person? “Huh?” was all they were able to eventually say, because, come on, what did that even imply? And as far as they knew no one should be able to survive in pure void, not even a vessel like themselves.

“AH, SORRY, I MUST INTRODUCE MYSELF” the voice once again said, “yeah, that might help” they responded, once again unsure of what was happening really. “I AM THE LORD OF SHADES” it called to them, unfazed by their tone “lord of shades?” That was quite a showy name in all honesty, but they weren’t going to tell them that. 

“THOUGH, IM SURE YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I AM, DON’T YOU?” Once again, it’s voice shook their form “nope, I’ve never heard your name in my life”, the voice paused, seeming to think over their words “DO YOU REMEMBER THE FEELING OF VOID GIVEN FORM?” That stumped them, it was brief when it first happened considering the events that happened afterwards, but they still felt it, slowly they nodded their head.

“HO HO, OF COURSE YOU WOULD, AND IF EVENTS HAD PLAYED OUT AS THEY WERE MEANT TOO THEN YOU WOULD’VE BEEN THE NEXT LORD OF SHADES!” the voice somehow got louder near the end, “wait, so you’re void given form?” The asked slowly, mostly in amazement, “wait, then how come you weren’t here the first time this happened?” They accused the now lord of shades, if they were here since the beginning they why didn’t they try to help them at least once? 

“I DO APOLOGISE, I WAS NOT AT MY PEAK PERFORMANCE THEN” the voice sounded like someone had just caught them stealing from the biscuit jar, “BUT, I WAS ABLE TO BRING YOU BACK!” It sounded almost like childlike excitement when they spoke, “wait, what do you mean bring back?” They asked in absolute confusion “HUH? DID YOU NOT REALISE THAT THE RADIANCE WAS PLANNING TO WIPE YOU FROM EXISTENCE ALTOGETHER? WHY, WITH THE SPELL SHE PULLED OFF I WAS ONLY ABLE TO SAVE A FEW OF YOUR CHARMS AT THE VERY LEAST!” The voice had genuine surprise in it.

“Oh, that makes sense” they felt rather stupid for not realising anything before this, “ANYWAY, THIS IS NOT THE REASON I CALLED FOR YOU” the lord of shades seemed to have gained a more serious approach, “I WISH TO HELP YOU ONCE AGAIN, THOUGH THIS TIME I’LL BE AROUND MUCH MORE FREQUENTLY”.

That through them off, a god was planning on helping them? That didn’t sound too bad to be honest, and it would make any future plans way easier for them, “does that mean you can help me out of here?” Stoic, as usual “because i’ve been meaning to get out of the void for a while now” there was a brief pause where they felt the void sway around them, and they worried they said the wrong thing “OF COURSE, I CAN SHOW YOU NOW IF TOU WOULD LIKE?”.

—————————

With the lord of shades directing them they eventually found the exit, it was very close to the ceiling, near the area where the lifeblood core charm was found, how did they find this place the first time? It was very concealed, “THIS IS AS FAR AS I CAN GO, MY STRENGTH MAY BE GREATER BUT I STILL CANT LEAVE THE ABYSS QUITE YET” they nodded in understanding, turning their head to look at the path ahead of them, it wasn’t a path they’ve ever seen before.

Just before they left they turned back to the lord of shades “are we related?” The embodiment of void gave a chuckle at that, “NO, WE MAY BE MADE OF THE SAME STUFF, BUT WE ARE NOT TRULY RELATED” there was a brief pause before they seemed to have an idea “HERE, TAKE THIS, IT MIGHT HELP ON YOUR JOURNEY!” A void tendril held out, well, something, on closer inspection it looked like a charm, though nothing they’ve ever seen before.

Slowly, they took the item, and watched in wonder is it seemed to explode into hundreds of particles, then, still in shock, watched as the void heart absorbed it. “What?” They asked in absolute confusion, what was that all about? “I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RESTORE ALL YOUR SPELLS, BUT I CAN GIVE YOU THIS, JUST CONCENTRATE ON SOUL AND YOU’LL BE ABLE TO FORM TEMPORARILY INTO A SHADE GHOST, PRETTY NEAT IN MY OPINION” another pause “OH, AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT LOOKING LIKE A CHILD FOREVER, THAT SPELL I GAVE YOU SHOULD HAVE UNLOCKED YOUR STASIS”

Then, without even a second the void god left them alone in the barren cave, turning around they took their first step to freedom from the void, “ok, first step, get as much geo as I can” with that plan settled they wandered into the dark with a brand new determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I didn’t see that coming, my mind is now exploded with shock, I can only assume you can relate as well.
> 
> Anyway my point still stands, my upload schedule is still going to be really weird


	3. Creepy crawlers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow did I hear the Deepnest alarm? You know it! I don’t know what more to add so enjoy my mediocre writing skills at full power

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone really read these? cause I sure don’t, I like to surprise myself

The caverns turned from familiar to unrecognisable, where the dark had been comforting before now felt crushing, and the constant sound of scuttling was keeping the knight on edge. They should’ve picked up something to defend themselves with before they left the abyss, with nothing in hand they were definitely in trouble.

They mentally slapped themselves in the face, ‘of course they should’ve thought ahead’, but too much was on their mind at the time to really think properly, with the constant revelations they were going through and having to deal with the idea that they had to do everything again; it was a lot in short.

Settling down in the cosiest bit of stone they could settle for, they let their body relax. A vessel didn’t exactly need a lot to survive, as long as they ate at least once a week and spent some time to actually sleep for a couple of minutes at the bare minimum they were good to go, it was only now they realised they haven’t exactly been doing that for quite some time.

They felt their vision waver slightly when they finally felt their tiredness at play, yes, a bit of sleep sounded wonderful, great even. It wasn’t long before their body went limp. They didn’t exactly make noise, even now they had a voice they found themselves just being quiet and stoic like they had done in the past, it was a small comfort that they could revel in.

As time continued the life in the cave carried on, smaller creatures crawled along its cooling walls, the constant dripping of water from the high ceilings, it was comforting in its own way, a beauty in of itself. As aforementioned the knight only rested for a bit of time, but when they woke they found themselves laying there, it was times like these they took in the smaller aspects of life, ever unchanging.

When they finally trekked ahead there was a new piece of comfort in their body, not soul, but an emotion they never really had time to really feel, peace. And they revelled on it, though, that peace mostly stopped when they made one of the few turns this cave seemed to offer, right ahead of them was a large group of mushrooms. Of course, that isn’t really that odd, but it was the fact they were glowing that really made them stand out, and glowing mushrooms could only be found in one location, Deepnest.

They gave a rather loud swallow, if they could be anywhere but here that would be great, but no, of course Deepnest just so happened to connect to this passageway, now they REALLY felt defenceless, and not only did they have no nail, but they only had one spell that they couldn’t even test out because they ran out of soul. God, the mantis claw would be really helpful right about now, it was sharp and though a lot weaker than a nail, still could do some damage from their own experience.

Of course they were happy that the Lord of shades was able to help restore a few of their charms, void heart being the most useful, but was it really so hard to maybe grab a few of their items? Not even a lumifly lantern? Because right now it was either return to the void or most likely death.

And that wasn’t even considering the fact that this was before the infection was really going strong, it’s most likely in its early phase, and they knew for a fact that Deepnest was one of the last places hit by the plague. So in short, if they were to traverse this place they would need to avoid the spider colonies at their peak strength; letting out some air they didn’t even now they were holding, they turned towards the opening towards most likely death and took their first step forward.

And instantly got caught in a trap made of pure web, all they could do was stare upside down with wide eyes. “Oh don’t look so shocked” a feminine voice spoke out, turning their head they realised it was a spider, they had defeated many in their journey, though from their position they couldn’t tell what type they were.

“Hmm, a little quiet now are you? You wouldn’t stop rambling earlier under you breath, in fact, you gave me a lot of time to get this trap sorted” the spider carried on without any sort of response, “something about how mushrooms glowed and that you didn’t have a nail, I wasn’t paying too much attention” once again the knight wanted to slap themselves, how could they not recognise themselves rambling?

“Anyway, we’ve been a little lacklustre on food for a while so thanks for dropping by, but you’re not any creature I recognise, might have to get you checked out to make sure you’re not venomous” now standing before them they noticed the lack of orange in the spiders eyes, a clear sign of lack of infection, they must have been right about their thoughts on the infections whereabouts as of this point.

On the journey back to the distant village the knight didn’t dare say a word, the situation was already bad enough, there was no reason to make it worse. After a good couple minutes of silence between the two the spider spoke up, “what are they teaching you bugs anyhow? Don’t you know, we may not be allowed to hunt out of Deepnest, but as soon as anyone comes to our territory your at OUR mercy” there was a sadistic spirit in that sentence that caused them to shiver in disgust.

“at least you’re not fighting your fate, we’ve had enough bugs outright crying in fear when we tell them we’re gonna eat them” once again there was no response, only the sounds of shuffling as the spider moved the knights tied up body into a more comfortable position.

It wasn’t long before the lights of the distant village came into view, the only difference they could tell was there were more web buildings held afloat in the air, “okay, well it was nice knowin ya” the spider lady said before throwing their body into a cart, “oh, and if you must know, this cart should bring you to the kitchens, easy travel, ya know?” Without any sort of reply the lady wandered back out to the caves, probably to hunt for more food most likely.

It seemed like no time at all before they were in the kitchens, though royal or public they couldn’t tell, they hadn’t been in too many to really know, suddenly a sheet was pulled back revealing a well dressed spider, though well dressed in this place wasn’t that well all considering.

without any time wasted the spider held down their small form, all they could do in response was to writhe, pulling out a syringe with one of their many arms they injected it into the knights leg, they could feel the pull of their void and watched as it was dragged into the syringe, “hmm, you clearly aren’t infected, otherwise this would be orange” the spider finally spoke “but still, a normal bugs blood shouldn’t be pitch black, perhaps a type of poisoning?” They seemed to zone out for a while before looking back down to the tiny knight.

“It may be in best interest to send you to Herrah, she is the most experienced when it comes to species and their edibility” without further explanation on why they were going to be sent to the queen of spiders the creature lifted them up, tucking them under one of their many arms, and walked out the kitchen without any further fanfare.

After a while of just walking the knight decided to think of some kind of plan, maybe they could challenge Herrah into a battle for their freedom? But they were better when they knew the others moves, and she was the queen of spiders for a reason, being the strongest in the village, and if they had been captured by just a simple knight then they definitely didn’t stand much of a chance in this state.

Just before they could continue with any kind of idea to help them the sound of grand doors opening reverberated around them, “my queen” the spider holding them bowed deeply, causing them to look directly at the floor, the sound of a large being shifting was something they heard first in this new silence, though this silence was new, it basically screamed threats of death and punishment. “Yes, morgrem?” Once again the spider ‘now known as morgrem’ changed positions so now they could see the creature in front of them.

In front of them stood the queen of Deepnest herself, scars were apparent on her body, and she was far larger than the knight thought possible; “oh, I just came for a few questions, I thought out of everyone you might know what this is” morgrem said while holding out the vessel as if it was some kind of offering, and in this situation they might as well be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, I bet you’re all thinking right now, how is this person posting these many chapters? Its unheard of, well let me tell you a secret, it’s called ‘having way too much time on your hands’, crazy I know. 
> 
> Anyway can you guess what’s gonna happen? personally I think the knights gonna die or something, hopefully the author can post a new chapter so I can finally deal with this anticipation.


	4. The great escape!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, looks like the knight’s in trouble, but I’m sure they’re fine... at least I think so.
> 
> can you arrest babies? Cause that’s what’s happening!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look at me! I’m doing a chapter-y thingy, neat

Herrah leaned in close from her throne, though the throne that she sat upon looked like it was brutally attacked in the coliseum of fools, “doesn’t look like any bug I’ve seen” she concluded; “have you checked for any kind of infection? From the reports we got from hallownest it seems that infected bugs often mutate” her tone could almost be called regal, if it wasn’t for the clear curiosity in her voice.

“No infection ma’am, checked earlier in the kitchens, lucky we did, we were just about to prep them for the open meal tonight” the knight was thoroughly surprised they said that with a straight face, “hmm, take them too the dungeons, we can work out what they are later, I’m not really in the mood to right now” though the knight couldn’t exactly see properly from their point they could distinctly see the nest in the corner of the room, with a single egg laying in it, wonder what that’s about?

They didn’t have anytime to speak their own thoughts before they were once again being carried off to what they assumed were the dungeons. A long corridor came to view before them, rusted and worn which either meant that these were used many times, or that spiders usually have different ways of dealing with criminals rather than locking them up; a shiver passed up their body, they certainly didn’t want to find out what THAT was.

“Welp, welcome to your home for the time being, you should have an assigned guard that will come later” slowly, Morgrem looked towards the child-like knight with a completely blank expression “I would suggest that you get comfortable as soon as possible” though the ‘suggestion’ felt more like an order, as if challenging the knight to even try to escape.

Morgrem didn’t stick around long, and soon a spider knight was guarding them like they were some kind of wild animal, they had the exact same armour to the spider that caught them, though that information was not very helpful in this situation.

“Hey” the knight whispered, “are you guys planning on eating me?” Their question was only greeted by silence, maybe they still didn’t have a good grasp on language yet? But the other soldier seemed to understand them; “can you understand me?” They tried again, only to once again be greeted by silence, taking a step back they leaned against the far wall, as far into the dark as they could, “this sucks” the murmured. No response.

It wasn’t long before they were collapsed into a ball on the floor, fast asleep, only to wake up to a familiar sounding whisper, “HEY, YOU AWAKE?” Even when whispering the lord of shades was still quite loud, “...yeah?”, a sigh of relief swept through their void, “GOOD, I’VE GOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO TELL YOU” now THAT got the knights interest “what is it?” it was great to hear a familiar voice and not have to deal with worrying about their own safety around them.

“OK, I’LL TELL YOU QUICK, I WONT BE ABLE TO HOLD UP THIS CONNECTION FOR LONG, AND FROM THE LOOKS OF THE SITUATION WHAT I HAVE TO TELL YOU WILL BE QUITE IMPORTANT” there was a teasing tone in their voice, which only made the fact the knight somehow got arrested under a week even more embarrassing, “well, what’s is it?”, there was a sense of pride in the weakened gods tone “I MANAGED TO BRING BACK AN ITEM OF YOURS!”

Without a sign of warning there was a flash of light that steadily enveloped their left hand, the knight watched in wonder as the light morphed, gaining a sturdier grip and stretching out, before the transaction stopped, now they could see clearly what rested in their palm, the pure nail.

Some part of their mind was surprised that the guard didn’t notice anything at all, the light was quite blinding for them personally, so it was amazing that there wasn’t even a sign of recognition from the guard at all; “Thank you” they whispered sincerely to the lord of shades, “NO PROBLEM” they responded before disappearing from their mind with a slight popping noise.

First things first they needed to escape, and they knew just how they were going to do that, gripping the handle of the pure nail the knight tippy toed towards the unsuspecting guard, closing the distance just enough to be able to make a good hit; leaping up slightly they rammed the hilt into the back of the soldiers head, which in return caused them to make a strangled noise before slumping towards the ground.

Repeating the process on the lock they were quite glad that the dungeons were completely rusted, making the process of breaking it quite easy, the door swung open without a hitch; but before they left they stopped over the body of the spider guard, noticing something quite interesting, this spider wore gloves, but not any old gloves, enchanted gloves, hornet had told them that there were some spiders that simple couldn’t produce any kind of silk, so for those that couldn’t they were given certain items to help them, one of which included ‘webbing gloves’, which allowed the bearer to cling to walls by releasing webs around the palms. Rummaging a bit more they found an odd container, opening it up they found what looked to be around a couple thousand geo which they quickly placed into their inventory.

A bit too eagerly for someone who was in the process of ransacking an unconscious body, they quickly snatched the gloves and put them on, adjusting the grips so they wouldn’t fall off. The gloves should respond to the bearers wishes so they shouldn’t have to worry about making a fool of themselves by accident.

It was only now they were finished did they realise the doors to leave had been locked earlier by Morgrem, though a quick survey showed a row of windows near the top, taking a steady breath they held one hand out and let it rest on the cold wall; it was incredibly intriguing to watch webs jut out from their hand and cling to the surface, and once again it was amazing to see the web come back, as if they just absorbed it.

In a, albeit wobbly, pattern they were able to make the process scaling across the cobble, they had enough experience with the mantis claws to know what to do by now. looking out the window they saw they were looking out into a town square, which meant that they couldn’t exactly break the glass otherwise they might alert more attention, but this just meant it was the perfect time to test their new spell, having gotten just enough soul from the unconscious guard.

Focusing they felt the familar tingle of void, except instead of the raging force the knight usually used it for, it slowly drenched their body from the bottom up until they opened their eyes with a new found lightness, of course they only had a tiny bit of soul so they couldn’t focus on this feeling for a while, so without any further input they shot towards the glass in front of them.

Luckily they had just enough to make it past the barrier, and soon they were jetting through the spider town with their sharp shadow charm attached, ignoring the sound of the dungeons doors opening just behind them and just focusing on just trying to make it to the stag station just up ahead.

————————

“What do you mean they escaped?!” Herrah shouted to her recently concussed guard, “W-well you see t-they seemed to have been armed!” The meek knight spoke with a squeak in their voice, “impossible, I saw them myself and they sure didn’t HAVE a weapon that I could see, unless you’re calling me a liar?”.

Once again her tone caused the knight to flinch “of c-course not my queen, I’m just I-implying that maybe there could’ve been some kind of u-unseen problem? Still, the spider queen was unimpressed “well, did they say anything?” There was some kind of recollection in the knights eyes “W-well they a-asked if I could speak” the queen looked at them with a stare that basically said ‘carry on’, “t-that’s all, r-really!”.

Still, the queen of Deepnest was unimpressed “well, it’s not like they’re much of a threat, even if they were able to best you” the knight shrunk under her retort but did not reply, knowing better than to tell her the small bug also took their gloves and geo, if they were to tell her she’d probably be outright pissed with their insolence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give me new ideas, like charm ideas and stuff. Like maybe a charm that causes their mask to have a mouth, or maybe a pair of shoes that cancels noise.
> 
> But don’t worry! you don’t have to if you don’t want to.


	5. Delivery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction of a new character!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How does the hollownest postal system work, cause I bet you can’t tell what this chapter is about

The wait was almost agonising, they had travelled many times through the distant village before, but now everything just felt too out of place. The lift they were currently on was made for carrying many heavy items at once, which was great, except it went incredible slowly.

They were half tempted to use their new gloves just to clamber up the nearest surface in their vicinity but knew better than to push their luck, too many good things have been happening to them recently, for all they knew someone could have strapped a bomb to their back! Though unlikely, not impossible.

Finally their patience was rewarded and they were finally looking towards the entrance of one of the many stagways they traversed in their travels, but just before they could ring the bell the sound of voices appeared near the entrance, “so how many silk barrels are we transporting today?” There was a pause before a different voice spoke up “the usual, twelve is always enough”.

Without really thinking the vessel leapt into one of the open caskets surrounding them, closing the lid behind them, luckily their chitin blended in well with the colour of silk, or at least they hoped it did.

There was a shift in weight and now they were very aware of the fact they were being moved, “hey! You sure you didn’t pack this barrel with more silk than necessary? It’s a bit heavy” the movement stopped for a few seconds, “oh stop whinging, just cause your a bit too weak” they were sure they heard the person moving them say ‘you’re the one who’s weak’ under their breath.

Once the movement stopped and the voices died down they were now very aware of the constant rocking sensation, popping the lid slightly open they were met with the back of a stags head, clearly not the same one they were friends with long ago. Testing their luck they moved their body fully out of the casket, though still keeping their feet in the soft silk and letting out a sigh of exhaustion, they were quite happy to watch the stone pass them by like a blur for as long as this journey took.

During the trip they had resigned themselves back into the basket of silk, and though they weren’t sleeping they found themselves lost in thought. Was it possible to contact the lord of shades? There were many questions that they still wanted to ask them, yet from the looks of it they weren’t going to get any answers for a while, who knows how much energy the void god had used when restoring their weapon.

They shook their head, the needed to think of what to do next! Like where they’re going, “YEAH, I COULD SEE THAT AS BEING A PROBLEM” they stopped, no way, no way in hell, “lord of shades?” What? And most importantly, how? “THE ONE AND ONLY” was the simple response, “HEARD YOU CALLING ME THROUGH THE VOID HEART” they said as if what they just said was the most simple thing ever, “OH, DID I FORGET TO MENTION? I SWEAR I SAID SOMETHING” the clueless tone in their voice did not help their case in the slightest.

Once the lord of shades finally finished their explanation of all the possible things the void heart could accomplish, the knight rubbed the section between their eyes, there was a lot of information that had been left out the first time they had met, and to be frank, the knight was just a bit annoyed.

Most of the things the void heart could accomplish were simple things, like the ability to store energy and explode it out as attacks, similar to the nailarts; another was the ability to create waypoint-like portals, but since they could already do this with the dream nail it was mostly unimportant. Lastly was the one that interested them the most, the ability to fuse the body of the lord of shades with the tiny knight.

“OF COURSE, IM NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THIS ARE, FOR ALL I KNOW WE COULD BE STUCK PERMANENTLY TOGETHER!” the god trailed off “BUT IM SURE YOU WANT TO TEST THIS OUT?” The knight nodded their head as much energy as they could, they mostly just wanted to see how it was to be part god.

“OK, BUT DO TELL ME IF IT HURTS AND ILL TRY TO STOP THE PROCESS” once again the knight gave a reassuring nod, of course they were slightly worried about what might happen to the barrel they were in, but their natural curiosity was caving in on them, and they were dying for something interesting to happen, barrel be damned.

At first the process was barely felt, just the trickle of energy they could feel welling up inside the void heart, but soon it was increased tenfold, pure power scurrying through their body, “YOU OK TO CARRY ON?” The knight nodded their head, they’ve gone through way worse than this. 

But soon it was like someone switched the power on full blast, they were highly aware of the fact that every part of their body was shaking in agony, and the sensation of their mask mutating and arching was not something they ever thought they wanted to feel ever again; the last thing they heard was the call of the lord of shades, though it sounded worried and shaken they couldn’t work out what they were saying, then they blacked out.

—————————

Their mind was still foggy when they gained some kind of consciousness but the sound of something being unlocked was very apparent to them, jerking their body they found that the once perfectly sized barrel felt way too cramped for their limbs.

The sounds of unlocking continued and all they could do was panic, what was happening? Had they finally been found out by the pale king himself? Now THAT thought got them really panicked, and when the sound of unlocking stopped and the light started touching their features they scrambled back as far as they could, only to look up and be met with a face they definitely were not expecting, sly the shopkeeper.

The two stared at each other for what felt like minutes, it got to the point where the knight wondered if sly was blind or something before he finally spoke up, “what the fuck, I didn’t order this” Still, even after finally one of them speaking the silence carried heavy between them, “that weather, am I right?” The knight spoke hoping they sounded normal, “get out” sly demanded with narrowed eyes; “good idea”.

Crawling out of the now to small barrel the knight was finally able to stand up, admittedly they stumbled slightly due to leg cramps, and their gaze now zoned in on sly, who was watching them with their hand held ready at his nail, “you a thief? Cause good luck, I may be small but I can fight well, so your best chance is to sceddadle on from where you came” of course the knight new his skill with the nail, they had thought him at the pantheon, although this sly looked much younger.

Craning their head down more than they usually did, it was very apparent that the knight had grown some, was it that incident with the lord of shades? If so then what else had changed? “Wait! I mean no harm, I just...” the knight trailed off, thinking for the right words, “...accidentally... fell in your delivery” and although the words sounded unsure they hoped sly believed them.

“Well, you got some explaining to do kiddo, and do it fast! Don’t want to wait around all day just for some kid to finish a story” sly huffed angrily, hopefully if he didn’t believe them they could pay him with geo, he was always quite a fan of the stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neato stuff, I kinda rushed today but I hope that it’s still ok


	6. Slow and steady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know the original art for arceus (the pokemon) looked like a some kind of jelly thing?
> 
> Oh yeah, summary, ok so what happens is-

The situation could almost be called comical if it weren’t for the fact it was happening to them; they were currently opposite sly while sitting on a mat that was in the middle of the room, he was nice enough to get them both cups of water while they tried to explain, but for the life of them they didn’t know where to start their story.

“I said hurry up kid, I got three students that should be around soon and YOU’RE not going to be here when they arrive” once again his tone caused the now slightly averaged height knight to swallow in dread, “erm, well, you see it was when I ...escaped home” sly studied their body language to see if they were lying or not, finally deciding to speak when he was sure they weren’t, “bad home life?” The knight was sure what to say, it was bad right? It was where most of their worst memory’s lay, “guess you could say that, saying my parents never gave a damn about me is putting it lightly” cracked chitin, raining bodies, so close to the door yet so far as well, a shiver racked their body.

Time seemed to move faster as they spun their story, telling of the events of their capture, to meeting the queen of spiders herself and then escaping with her own peoples artillery, throughout the story sly changed from cold and disheartened to devilishly smiling when they told of how they easily knocked out the guard keeping them captured.

“listen, kiddo, it’s clear that you’re most likely a figurative against Deepnest, they don’t take any kind of attack well, even if it was just ONE guard” sly turned his head to one side, mimicking the movement of someone deep in thought. “How about this? You pay me frequent rent” the knight wanted to tell them they HAD geo, just not enough to support rent, “and I’ll allow you to stay here a while, and if you’re lucky” sly’s finger was now directly pointing at their forehead, “I’ll even let you become one of my students, don’t worry, the other three are only fifteen, actually, how old are you?”

Oh shoot, how old were they? Their body was only a few weeks old, but their mental age definitely exceeded that by a lot, and another problem was the fact that they didn’t know how long they wandered about the wastes. Noticing sly was anticipating an answer they responded as quickly as they could, “fifteen”, and although the words were rushed it got the point across.

“Oh, perfect, hopefully you get along well, oh and some advice, they all look the exact same so good luck trying to tell them apart” wait, he didn’t mean Mato, sheo, and oro did he? The sound of a door opening roused them from their thoughts, turning to sly he was opening a door they never saw before, “this will be your room for now, and even if you don’t like you’re gonna have to suck it up, it’s the only spare one I have”.

Turning to leave sly stopped just short from the door, “oh sorry, I forgot to ask, what’s your name?” They thought about it for a bit, they had been called many names in the past, wanderer, the silent one, even intimidating, though those were mostly placards and not actual names. The closest thing they ever got to a name was ghost, maybe that would do for now.

“Ghost” they spoke softly, “hmm, you certainly look like one” was their only response before they were left in silence, getting up they decided to explore their newfound bedroom, they’d never had a bedroom before so this was definitely a brand new experience for them, they wondered what a bed felt like.

Small tidbits were scattered around the around the dusty room, most likely having been untouched for quite some time, but what mostly intrigued them was the mirror on the left side from the door. 

Moving their legs towards the rectangle on the wall they finally caught a grasp on what they looked like, most prominently their white mask, their horns had been elongated as well as split and widened, which basically made them look like four horns instead, but that wasn’t the only part changed, two nubs were emerging from each side of their head, clearly indicating that they would grow in at some point; their head wasn’t quite as narrow as hornets had been, but it was definitely getting there.

Next they checked their body, it was clear they were taller, but now they could actually see their joints, whereas it was quite hard to tell where their arms started and their torso stopped. In fact the nail on their back looked quite comical compared to their size, grasping it in their left hand it was clear it felt lighter too, must be a process of getting stronger with age.

They were definitely changed, though they were clearly not fully aged, which was clear when sly believed them so quickly when they said they were fifteen, they really did look like one to be fair. Stepping back from the mirror they turned to the rest of the room, experimenting with every little thing, whether that be closing the curtains over and over, or just touching the carpet with their hands.

Soon they finally rested on the bed, even though it wasn’t quite made it still worked well for comfort, making them almost question how they possible could’ve lasted so long without this, their rest was cut short by a knock at the door, “can I come in?” It was slys voice, “sure” they spoke without moving, god it was great to finally speak, as if a chain that was always there was just unlocked.

With a bit of shuffling they were now facing sly, “did you want anything?” Ghost spoke earnestly, “yes, I was just wondering, I know I already said but do you really want to become one of my pupils? I can be quite a harsh teacher and I didn’t really give you a chance to say earlier” they weren’t sure, they knew all three of the nailarts already, but there was still much more they wanted to learn, nodding their head to indicate ‘yes’, a gentle smile appeared in slys face.

“Great, because the others just arrived, do you want to meet them? they must be quite confused as to why I’m taking my time today” ghost gave a light chuckle at that, “sounds good, let’s go and meet your ‘other’ pupils” they purposefully phrased ‘other’ with just a small happy tone, “well let’s get going then!”

Standing in the middle of the nailsages dojo were the three brothers, mato, sheo, and oro. Though they all seemed to have the same level of intrigue when ghost walked in after sly, but said nothing; “now, my students, I would like to introduce you to your new peer in learning the sacred nailarts” there was was a brief moment where ghost was unsure whether to speak or not, good first impressions right?

Luckily they didn’t need to introduce themselves as one of the brothers walked up to them, bowing slightly in greeting, before finally speaking, “a newcomer? It was under my impression that you would need familial connections to guarantee a spot with the great nailsage” though the words were not meant to be unkind they still rubbed ghost slightly the wrong way; “then how did you get in?” Ghost spoke gently, though now they were face to face they were acutely aware of the fact they were near the same height, as well as the fact they were speaking with sheo currently.

“My family are very high class, as well as the fact they were apart of the great nail union-“ a hand clasped around sheos mouth, “oh can it sheo, no need to brag you big moron” the voice sounded aspirated with their brothers little tangent before the owner of the voice was looking at them, mato, oro was standing just a few steps back, clearly checking to see if they were a worthy opponent or not.

“Is he usually like like that?” Ghost questioned worryingly, was he going to be like that all the time, if so then they weren’t sure how long they could take, “no, he’s never really been too serious when it comes to this stuff, suppose he would much prefer to doodle all day” mato teased the brother still in his grasp, wrestling free sheo unlatched his mouth from matos grip “lies! Lies and slander!” Only for oro to clasp his hand on sheos mouth instead.

Sly watched on from the side, how great they were doing fine already! He had expected some sort of fight, and as entertaining as that thought was, he knew he would’ve had to break it up eventually one way or another, actually, sparring didn’t sound like a bad idea, it would be a good way to test how well this new learner was with a nail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha this is so cool and epic


	7. Coming to terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to cover just a few more subjects, the biggest one being the sibling situation. To be honest, I’ve seen way to many fics where ghosts first goal is to save their siblings; so in my fic I decided that i’m gonna do something different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I’m late! But check this out! You might like it!

It’s been roughly two weeks since they came to living in slys house, with nearly daily training sessions they had grown close to the three brothers, mato and sheo had been easier to work with, but it was really oro that was incredible stubborn. On multiple occasions they had beat them in training, only for oro to demand a rematch which they would beat him fairly soon in, only for him to demand another.

But still, even with training they were left with a lot of free time, and since it was forbidden in the dojo to use soul of any kind they had collected a rather large stash after each fight they participated in. Nestling themselves on their bed ghost decided it may be in best interest to test some things out.

Reaching into their soul was always a lurching feeling, as if they were reaching into themselves and pulling out something that definitely was not meant to be pulled out. Twisting in their grasp they focused once again, black entrails crawling up their cloak, gradual and slow yet all encompassing; the weight of their white mask was being lifted as it crumbled to dust, leaving only their black floating body.

While in their shade form they had learned that while not displaying any movement their soul wouldn’t become dismissed, it was the actual movement that drained their body of energy and left them empty of reserves, so they focused on just floating in one place, crossed legged akin to meditation.

Slowly they opened one eye, as of right now it took lots of concentration to stay in their form, with their massive growth spurt they had found themselves stumbling over themselves more often than not, with legs too thin and limber than their previous form, they almost wished they could go back to being small, but they couldn’t! This was a sign they were finally moving on, that things could change, and growing up was a large part of change.

Nudging themselves forward they drifted slowly along their room, small void tendrils whipped around slightly in agitation, attempting to grasp anything in sight, yet they payed no mind. This was the furthest they’d ever been when testing this out, the first time they had tried this back in Deepnest was clumsy at best, having no knowledge of how to use non offensive spells into action.

Though even now they weren’t to sure of its limitations in combat, they wanted so desperately to see if they could form their body into something completely different while using the shade ghost spell, but it was untested and unusual, and who knows what catastrophic events could lead if they made a single wrong move.

They were now halfway across the room and their thoughts drifted once more. 

The shade lord had made no sign of communication to them, not even when they begged the void heart for a single sign of communication. They weren’t sure what repercussion the void god had faced when they fused bodys, was it because of their own selfish needs to contain their ever present boredom that the shade lord might be in a dangerous situation? 

They were so close to the other end of the wall now.

Soon it should be their siblings hatching day right? What should they do, ghost will admit they had been deflecting any thoughts to do with their siblings, not even asking the god of void if they were fine, to look over them, to maybe even stop some casualties. But as bad as it is, ghost didn’t exactly want anything to do with their siblings for a while, whether void or spider either one just brought pain to their minds, having been so horrifically betrayed by the hollow knight, or even the countless fights between them and hornet, they never forgot the feeling of that needle piercing their body, the feeling of hornet ripping one of their horns off in Greenpath and still continuing as if nothing was estranged, soul healed their broken horn easily, but it was the fact hornet had been able to do it so undeterred that through them off.

Their hand now rested against the wall, their soul was still half full, perfect for a return. 

Throughout their time in Hollownest their siblings had only hurt them, defiled them as if they were some kind of sub being compared to their ever present greatness, but it wasn’t just in Hallownest they were treated wrongly, they remembered clearly in godhome where they discovered the hollow knight and hornet were high praised gods, and though they defeated them both in the pantheons they were told they were merely just a speck of dirt in their image. A body can be healed in nearly no time at all with the induction of magic, but magic cannot heal a mind, and no amount of apologising can help a broken mind.

Maybe it was selfish, but they couldn’t bring themselves to save their siblings; they wanted to leave that part about them behind and move anew to a better future, maybe after they defeat the Radiance they could graduate as a nailmaster and teach the next generation sacred nailarts along with the three brothers. 

Perhaps they could challenge the pale king for a chance to rule the kingdom of Hallownest, even if the pale king knew all their was to know, the kingdom he ruled was not a perfect one, a heavy cast system deterring every bugs entire life story. Or maybe they could just become a nobody, not special in any way, just an everyday bug you may see on the street, it surly was a calming idea.

They were now drifting towards the bed once again, so close to their own little end goal, and though it may have no meaning to any other bug, it held meaning to them as it showed that they were progressing, even something as small as this held a certain happiness to them. The feeling of their mask piecing itself back together sent a shiver up their spine, and although the void negated any pain during the transaction it still felt disturbing.

Landing gracefully they leaned back on the bed, it fit them perfectly, though they did worry it may grow too small once they reach their max age; though that was a thought for another day, and they were pretty sure that they had done enough thinking to last them quite awhile, and though it was true that they did have a mind to think It still didn’t change the fact they were rather limited to certain aspects of thinking, such as long term being nearly non existent within their now fried skull.

A knock they had quickly grown to recognise laid heavy on the surface of their door, too heavy to be sly, and a familiar tune that could only come from one of the brothers; they smiled gracefully under their mask, it was a perfect way to escape their thoughts, “mato, you can come in y’know?” The door opened to reveal the boy, and though they were the same height mato and his brothers held more muscle on their body’s, while ghost was the epitome of lanky and weak looking, though they made up for it with unbeatable speed and heavy hitting power. 

“Damn, still don’t know how you knew it was me, and don’t tell me it was the tune of the knock, that stuffs absurd”, still, mato held a broad smile on his face, holding something up in his right hand, “I brought some drinks from home, a celebration to the newbie that showed oro who’s the real boss” chuckling together ghost reached out to see what kind of drink it was, ‘wiles per miles fizzy drinks’, the expensive kind too, though it was to be expected considering matos upbringing.

Still, it was a lot just to bring to ghost, though mato spoke first, ”oh, and before you say anything, it’s sheos stuff, not mine”, now THAT got ghost laughing, it wasn’t long before they were both a crumbled laughing mess. Finally getting themselves together, with the odd chuckle here and there, they popped the cans open and chugging the drinks in unison as they attempted to get as energetic as possible from just a singular fizzy drink.

Soon once the drinks were finished they both sat on the bed and chatted, most of the time it was about random imformation, “did you know they’re doing a great sale on rock salt in the market?”, And others might lead to talking about the insufferable power balance with matos home, “I tell you, we’re three minutes apart in birth, and I’m the youngest of all three of us, yet they both treat it as if I’m half their age!”.

it had been quickly decided between the three brothers not to bring up anything to do with ghosts family history; when oro had tried forcing them to talk about their family, ghost didn’t speak a word, but it was the fact that oro basically laughed in their face and told them they were probably scared of their own family that caused ghost to punch him square in the face, after that oro calmed down by quite a huge margin, and though he was still cold, he was much more open to conversation, even making a great training partner.

Soon it was time for mato to start heading back out home, “wait, can I come with you? I kinda wanna check out where you live”, and though the question was incredible straightforward ghost hoped it didn’t come off as creepy, “sure! It’s only fair that if I know where you live, you get to know where I do”, welp, there was no fighting that logic.

Both putting on their shoes, they wandered out onto Dirtmouth, walking into a direction that ghost had never personally taken, it was sure to be interesting for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m out of ideas of what to put here sorry guys no funny text today


	8. Meet and greet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick view of Matos home! Like I mean real fast, sheo and oro aren’t really mentioned at all sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I wanted to enforce the idea that the brothers are only fifteen, so therefore would most likely still have parents

It was very clear that Ghost had never even known this part of town existed, high buildings that basically screamed wealth and power, they felt rather out of place. Unconsciously they tucked their cloak closer to their body, the only comparison they had to this place would be the city of tears, crawling to the brim with husks and the rancid smell of washed-out decay; how could Lemm ever even stand that place, considering he seemed like the kind of person who enjoyed to complain about everyone and everything.

But as they took a look around they reminded themselves that those moments are what they’re here to stop, the infection has barely even started, they have plenty of time to return to the pantheons and defeat the Radiance. 

Finally, after their inner conversation they took notice of Mato, he was looking right at them with an open look of curiosity, once he realised he had been caught staring he finally spoke, “how’s it look so far?”, one last survey showed everything ghost needed to know, “well, it’s a lot bigger than my room I’ll tell you that”, Mato just snickered at that but didn’t respond.

A comfortable silence fell between the two, an unspoken rule of peace. Ghost found that Mato could be very quiet when he wanted to be, but that just worked well for them as well, being able to stay quiet was something they prided themselves in especially. 

Soon though, each new sight slowly became more dull and the silence was more uncomfortable than not, flat cobble and flashy lights from each home lost its magic, but the light beckoning in its call still urged them to step towards the warmth.

Mato suddenly made a sharp turn down a rather concealed path, with a type of pitch black that made Ghost look like just a cloak and mask, “damn, we must’ve left a bit late, can barely see anything in here”, Ghost could definitely agree with Mato, there were some darknesses that changed depending on its location; Deepnest was suffocating, the void was homey, and this path was feeling particularly unwelcoming.

Still they both carried on, “say, you don’t happen to be carrying a light at all?” Mato asked finally, with a slightly pleading tone, “nope, if it makes you feel better I’m currently saving up for a charm that allows for bioluminescence” Ghost wasn’t actually lying, there was a new shop that opened up opposite slys merchant shop that sold old or used charms for a great price, one of which consisted of that very charm, even if ghost was actually working small jobs at slys to help pay for rent and any other items they may need, they were slowly making more geo as time passed.

Their response only received a sigh of resignation, “I guess, we could go around?” But before Ghost could say anything Mato spoke again, “no, it would take way too long to get back in time if we went the long route, and my parents would kill me for sure”, that brought a new thought to Ghost that they didn’t really think about before, “did you sneak out?”, Mato froze, “well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it ‘sneaking out’, more or less ‘getting some fresh air without permission’”, so yeah, sneaking out, ghost just flatly looked at him without any commentary until they could swear Mato was sweating under Ghosts scrutiny.

If Ghost had eyes they would’ve rolled them, they clasped Matos hand with theirs before pulling them along the dark path, “how about this, you take a guess and we’ll go that way and see if we get to your house” there was a large pause where they thought they might’ve said something wrong before Mato spoke up, “sounds great”, Ghost was left to wonder why there was a a small hint of hesitation in his voice, but currently that was the least of their concerns.

Every so often Mato would point them to a new direction, repeatedly getting them lost within a web of paths, roads, and alleys. Finally it seemed that Mato was recognising his surroundings a bit better, with each new path becoming a bit more recognisable to his darkened vision. Long since had they stopped holding hands, Ghosts cold black fingers retreating back into their cloak, it almost made them look armless from first glance.

Once again Mato turned sharply towards another path, though this one was unlike the rest, and what the path led up too was almost as equally surprising; there, right before them both was Matos family home, that on its own isn’t exactly noteworthy, but it was the fact it looked completely identical to the three brothers future homes that made it a shock, like a look into ghosts past being thrown at them at full force in the chest.

Mato was waiting by the door expectantly for them, with a look that basically said ‘you coming?’, Ghost only responded by walking up to stand next to him; Mato breathed in deep before slowly sighing out, grasping the doorknob. But that plan came to a halt when the door was roughly slammed open, standing in its place were two bugs that looked scarily similar to the three nail brothers, save for a few key differences, such as the increased height.

“And where have YOU been” the both demanded in near sync, “o-oh mum, dad, I was just, j-just” Mato looked around haphazardly before landing eyes on Ghost, “I was just walking with a friend”, he spoke quietly and quickly, was Ghost supposed to be scared as well? Now both Matos parents attention was on ghost, and Ghost was surprised they only noticed them now, they didn’t really blend in the dark with their pure white mask.

It seemed like that was definitely not the answer they were expecting considering they both just stared at Ghost for a full five seconds, each second feeling slower that the last. Finally they turned to Mato, “a friend?” The more feminine sounding one spoke, which Ghost could only assume to be the mother. Surprisingly it wasn’t filled with absolute hate, maybe they’d gotten too used to people wanting to kill them all the time.

“That’s a first” the dad spoke afterwards, genuine surprise lacing his words, which only caused Mato to cringe more heavily. “Well, why don’t you two come in, and we can have a nice talk about why you both were out so late” the words had an edge of warning to them, which only caused Ghost to tense more under their cloak, luckily their mask blocked any sign of facial expressions so no one would notice they were currently terrified out of their mind; Deepnest was much easier than this.

The home itself was what the ideal house could look like, lavish comfort decorated every square inch of space, decorations and art pieces that looked like it costed about the same amount as four arcane eggs, and they caught themselves staring more often than not at the beautiful colours they didn’t even know existed.

The bug they had registered as being the mother motioned for them to sit down, “come have a seat, it would be nice to learn about our sons new friend personally”, nodding their head they walked to the living room, this time they didn’t boondoggle and sat straight down in the first free chair they could find. The rest of the family following suite, “so I guess the best thing as of right now would be introductions” Matos father spoke after all the shuffling of movement ended.

It took Ghost a couple seconds to realise he was basically saying ‘who the hell are you?’, stumbling forward slightly to answer they responded, “my name’s Ghost” it was in haste but it was exactly as they had practiced, “no family name?” The mother questioned, Ghost could visibly see Mato tense up, most likely images of Oro getting squared in the face when they brought up Ghosts family was playing through his mind, but Ghost would never hit his friends mother in the face! Absurd really.

“No, I don’t keep the same relationship with my family as I once had” Ghost tried to keep it neutral by passing the question off, but Matos father was now looking at them with squinted eyes, “oh, why’s that?”, of course, Ghost didn’t exactly know how to say, ‘my father sentenced thousands of my siblings to death’ without it sounding off-putting and slightly barbaric; so instead they slipped in a slight white lie, “my parents weren’t the best people to be around, they did... awful things to me and my siblings, and I decided to leave to have a better life” short and sweet, and was nearly the truth.

But that moment of triumph only lasted a few seconds when they realised no one was saying anything, Ghost could practically see the cogs turning in their heads to try and figure out what that could possible mean. “Anyway, so what do you do for a living to have such a grand home?” Ghost hoped the question would deter them from asking any further questions, it seemed to do the trick as both of Matos parents snapped out of their thoughts, as well as Mato himself, “oh, well for the last ten years-“

And so the night continued with simple questions, like about what Ghost does to earn geo, how they met Mato, where they’re living currently, and in return Ghost finally learnt their names, Pali was the father, and Musa was the mother; quite fitting really, and a few more facts about their family, such as learning they had only moved to Dirtmouth a couple months back, and that with all the training the brothers were doing they didn’t have a lot of time for friendships. Lucky Ghost was training with them as well.

Soon it was time for Ghost to leave, bidding them all a farewell before the door to their home was closed, they turned around and looked towards the night sky, beautiful stars lit up the once-dark town; unlatching the dream nail from its secret compartment they tore a portal back to the waypoint they had set back home, jumping through without looking back.

Maybe they could abstain from adventuring for a while, when there’s clearly so much they haven’t discovered here yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have a lot of ideas I want to do, eventually I’ll probably give Ghost so many ability’s they just become op as hell so sorry about that


	9. A rocky reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I thought it would just be really funny to make Ghost a till worker, only because it would probably be everything they hate.
> 
> And hey! Did you know that I keep on forgetting important details? I forgot the spider gloves existed completely before I wrote this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stop reading this and read my story it’s very cool and epic

Ghost was currently standing behind Slys till, working as a form of cashier for the merchant store; they were only there because they had accidentally broken their bedroom window, Sly of course demanded the geo to get it fixed immediately. Ghost was barely able to cough up enough money and it only made the fact they didn’t really have a lot of mainstream ways to earn geo even more present.

Out of pure fear they may lose their room due to not having much geo at all to pay rent they had begged Sly for a proper job at his shop; it seemed like that was one of the best outcomes Sly could’ve gotten from the interaction because he immediately shoved Ghost behind his till, quickly showing them the basics of how each thing worked before leaving with a rushed explanation of some kind of meeting later that Ghost didn’t exactly understand.

For a few minutes now Ghost has been making a transaction with a bug that wanted to buy one of the many random items that seemed to appear in Slys shop, needless to say it was actually really boring, no wonder Sly gave it to them so easily, he must have been bored out of his wits end. Moving into a position he had seen Iselda in many times from their travels; it only gave them a small amount of comfort, and it certainly didn’t help with the fact that the desk was just a bit too small for their recently changed body.

The bug they were currently in the process of dealing with was rummaging in their pockets for what Ghost assumed was more geo, “hey, kid, how about I strike you a deal” the odd bug spoke with a hint of mischievousness, “how about instead of paying full price, I give you half of what you’re askin’, and in return I’ll give you something VERY special”, Ghost didn’t exactly like the way they emphasised ‘very’ at all, and even if they were curious they couldn’t mess up their job already, “if the price tells you how much it’s worth, then that’s what it’s worth, no bartering”. The bug made a noise of agitation, “very well”, and with that the now very much an annoyance slammed the rest of the geo onto the desk, took what they came for, then stomped out.

In fact now that Ghost thought about it, they didn’t actually remember what the bug had just bought, for all they knew they could’ve just sold one of the most expensive items in this entire shop for one hundred geo only; god they hoped they were wrong. Suddenly the door was slammed open at full throttle, “Ghost!”, focusing once again they distinctly noticed that Sheo was now exceptionally close to their face, “...hi?” They responded unsurely, “you know what day it is right?!” Sheo spoke with rushed excitement; putting their finger to their chin Ghost thought for a couple of seconds, “is it your birthday?”.

“Nope” Sheo emphasised the ‘p’ with notable cheeriness, the kind of cheer that would make someone look automatically suspicious for committing some kind of crime, “come with me, quickly” and with that Sheo grabbed one of Ghosts horns and pulled them towards the hatch hidden beneath Slys carpet, but why were they going to the dojo? From what Ghost learned within these last weeks was that today wasn’t a training day, but they couldn’t argue with wanting to leave that till.

Climbing the ladder down they both made their way to the dojo main room, and though Ghost had made this travel many times for sparring with the brothers, now it felt tense for some reason. Suddenly Sheo stopped in place, causing Ghost to walk straight into his back, though Sheo didn’t make any movement of notice; “okay, are you going to tell me why we’re here now?” The boy turned around only to make a shushing noise before making a ‘follow me’ gesture.

Unveiling the curtains showed both Mato and Oro already there, as well as Sly; both Sheo and Ghost shimmied up to where the others were sitting and positioned themselves as such, now all four students were looking up to their teacher; “I’m glad that you all could make it, as you may have heard the annual nailart championships are coming up fast, and as instated by rule of law, ‘any nailsage that has one or more students under their tutelage shall be entered within the competition’. 

“Of course, I can only assume that some of you don’t know what the nailart championships are”, from what Ghost could tell it seemed that all three brothers knew what this championship was, so that meant they were being singled out; “in short, it’s an event that happens only once a year where students of the nail compete for a chance to win the nailart tournament, it’s quite a great sport, and gives many students chances of internships with high classing nail groups, allows nail students to form bonds with one another, and even a chance to get picked out by the nail elites”; Ghost felt like they understood more from just Sly saying the word ‘nail’ than anything else.

“And I want at least one of you to at least get in the top ten! Many nailsages earn riches from these kinds of events, and I want to be one of them!” Of course, it had something to do with geo, but Ghost had a different question rather than ‘why do you enjoy using us for ways of increasing your greed when I’m probably gonna only get payed minimum wage’, instead they went for, “who are nail elites?”, Mato looked at them with shock, “nail elites?! You know? The five great knights? Mighty Hegemol, Fierce Dryya, kindly Isma, mysterious Ze'mer... erm, and the other one”, Ghost just stared at them blankly, “you mean ogrim?”, Mato just had a look of bland interest, “is that what their name is?”.

“Anyway” Oro brought back everyone’s attention, “what matters is the fact we need to train more before this competition starts, and fast”; Ghost could safely say they 100% agree with that statement, it was only normal to train more for such an event, even if they didn’t really know what it entailed fully quite yet, but there was still a few things Ghost needed to know first, “Sly, are we able to use outside equipment? Such as charms or spells?” Sly watched them carefully for a few moments, “I mean, sure, it’s allowed, but usually it depends on what kind of equipment you were planning on using, such as not being allowed to use a charm that increases your nails’ damage tenfold for example, but something less offensive is definitely ok” Sly was still watching them even after he spoke, unblinking, “I wasn’t aware you knew any form of spell casting, considering you need to be able to withhold soul within your body, which is normally dangerous for a normal bug to hold and is why only higher beings have the compatibility for it”.

“Tell me, Ghost, can you use spells?”, Slys voice took a serious undertone, basically forcing the words out of Ghost, “yes, but only one so far, and not very well”, the three brothers were just sitting back watching the ordeal happen before them, as if this was some kind of poorly written play, “then I guess you’re going to need some extra training, huh? If you want to be able to use it well in the tournament?”; that response was not what Ghost had expected, they had expected Sly to accuse them of trying to lie to them for some reason or something, not a chance to increase their proficiency with spell-casting.

“But” ah, the dreaded word everyone feared, “it would probably work better if you could show me what it is, I won’t be able to help you if I didn’t know what kind of spell it is”, Ghost quickly checked their reserves, they had enough soul for just one use, and like they had discovered their soul wouldn’t drain as long as they didn’t move while focusing it.

Nodding their head to Sly they reached into their soul once again. At first nothing happened, everyone was watching Ghost in anticipation, each expecting something different; they definitely weren’t ready for when Ghost started floating, never mind the fact their mask crumbling to nothing, whatever this spell was was nothing they’d ever seen before.

Right before them, was a being of pure black, with bright white eyes; parts of their body were moving in tendrils even though the main host didn’t show any sign of movement, their body looked like it had fused with itself, as you couldn’t tell where most of their body started and where it ended. But just as soon as it happened it stopped, Ghosts mask reassembled itself, and their body once again became whole and unchanged, almost like they hadn’t just shown a spell that no one has ever seen before right in front of them, “eh?” Sheo spoke with pure confusion, “so you can turn into a... ghost?”; turning around Ghost answered their question with nonchalant “yep” emphasising the ‘p’, most likely mocking Sheos earlier statement back in the shop.

It was now Oro who asked a question this time, “so are you named after a spell? Or is that just a coincidence?” Ghost wasn’t really too sure, for all they knew the lord of shades could’ve just called it that for a laugh, but then again, did the lord of shades even know what their name was? Ghost just made a shrugging motion, “that doesn’t tell me anything at all!” Ghost didn’t exactly hear him too well, considering they were now deep in thought.

“Is there anything else you can do?” Sly asked, though at this point he just sounded tired of this weirdness; slowly Ghost pulled out their spider gloves and showed them to sly, “no, not that, I already know about those”, Ghost wasn’t too sure if there WAS anything else they could do, before it clicked. Holding their hand up to the void heart clipped to their cloak, a coldness swept the room, the sound of a heavy vibration wafted through the air; then all of a sudden a deafening noise filled everyone’s eardrums, and a blinding light seemed to take hold of their forms.

Once the light passed and the ringing stopped it revealed Ghost with char marks on their body, smoke was drifting around them; in short, they looked like they just rolled around in a campfire and then covered themselves with gasoline. 

“What the hell was that! A little warning next time!” Oro yelled from his position lying backwards and somehow upside down against the wall, “sorry! It was my first time using it!”, it seemed that both Sly and Sheo didn’t suffer from any kind of damage, though that’s only because Sheo had hidden behind Mato and made them take the blunt of the damage, Mato was currently knocked out; and Sly had flown out of the way.

“I’m going to guess you need help with THAT too?” Surprisingly Sly didn’t even sound surprised at this point, just even more tired than before. Of course, Ghost just saw this as another opportunity to get stronger and not just Sly hoping they wouldn’t accidentally blow up his shop anytime soon.

“Now that that’s concluded” Sly had a tone of mock happiness in his voice, “get back to work!” Ghost basically scuttled as fast as they could to get back to the till, only tripping every so often, they definitely didn’t want to get fired already on the first day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, oh boy, I sure do hope Ghost wins that tournament, if they didn’t that would be very embarrassing


	10. Bought and sold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new character is introduced! And they don’t try to kill Ghost straight away! Phew...
> 
> I’m surprised you guys are still reading this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah and charms as well

Ghost was wrong when they said it was boring working for Sly, it was absolute agony. For hours on end they waited until someone finally came in, and even then bugs would get angry about the most non sensical things, ‘this scroll has a scratch on it!’ One had said, and when Ghost asked to see it they found out the scratches had been caused by the bugs’ own claws, of course they eventually paid, but it was the amount of time it took for them to pay up that antagonised Ghost.

The sound of Slys room opening up was just behind them, which didn’t help with their headache in the slightest considering it was made of incredibly rusted metal and grated against itself in the worst possible ways; the soft patter of tiny feet was just behind them before stopping at their side, though Ghost didn’t make any sign of movement to their appearance.

“Guess you want your pay?” That got Ghosts’ attention, and they turned around just in time to see a bag fall onto their desk, “that’s two hundred geo right there, not a single more or a single less”, Sly didn’t give Ghost enough time to react before he was walking off again, “thank you, Sly”, the fly only stopped for a couple moments, “no problem, kiddo” and without even looking back carried on off to his room.

Opening the leather strap bag Ghost looked inside to see the glint of geo, if they actually had a proper face they would be absolutely radiating with excitement just from their look; there was definitely something they needed to do now. Quickly, they extracted the money they got back in Deepnest and counted it up, just enough; grabbing the bag of geo they sped walked out of the shop and into the street.

They only brought so much attention as they walked out, at this point they were used to the staring they got from many of the towns folk, considering they didn’t look like any kind of ‘normal’ bug. Also the fact they were taller than most that resided in Dirtmouth, it really made them stand out like a sore thumb all considering; but today wasn’t the day they were going to get embarrassed due to some child crying when they saw them out of fear Ghost was some kind of demon.

They walked with a distinct goal in mind, all the way to that new shop, only now did they really read the sign it was labelled with, ‘hidden treasures’, Ghost hoped the sign was lying. Opening the door with maybe a bit too much effort they wandered to the charm rack as soon as possible, not even looking around to see if anything else was available; before they found what they came for, two things actually.

Each charm sold here was around around seven hundred geo, but if you bought two then you get three hundred geo off your purchase, and luckily for them they had just enough money to get them both with money to spare.

The first charm, with a design that looked like a mushroom, allows the user to glow in the dark, or even Concentrate it into one area for a brighter rendition, like a lumifly lantern; the second has a design of a question mark, this charm allows the user to become unrecognised to the eye, as if forcing people to not look at them, but doesn’t work well against someone with a spell that can negate the effects.

This wasn’t the first time they had been here, they had been here before to check out the prices of each item, as well as which charm they should go for the most; it took countless consideration to pick these two, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t want to have any of the others on display.

Walking up to the till they placed down their items, only to realise that no one was there; “is there someone there?” A voice called out, it sounded old and worn, yet still held a warm energy; from behind a door Ghost didn’t even know existed appeared an old woman, “ah, sorry dearie, I didn’t keep you waiting did I?” Ghost was rather surprised, she moved so agile that they didn’t even realise they were now looking eye-to-eye with her, “it’s no problem, really, I just want to buy a few of your charms”, Ghost was now fairly aware that she was looking at them more that what a glance should consist of.

“A traveller eh? you youngins are always so eager to explore, though I understand that, I was quite the traveller in my day!” She spoke while packaging the two charms into a bag, “you picked some good charms I’ll tell you that, usually people go for more offensive ones, though that’s not a bad thing either” Ghost didn’t exactly want to say how close they were to grabbing the poison nail charm after just being congratulated on not doing so.

Once the deal was final and the charms were packaged ghost happily paid the geo warranted; turns out that there was also a sale on charm notch’s, being only one hundred geo per each, which definitely confused Ghost by a huge margin because they had assumed that notches were very hard to get into possession, but here they were, in an old wooden basket. Perhaps there were more notches in the past than in the future? Which equaled to a decrease in expense? It definitely explained why they barely found any when they first traversed Hallownest. 

Having three hundred geo left they greedily purchased three notches as well, wishing the old bug good day as they headed out again. While making their way back home they clipped the extra notches on their cloak, before putting the illumination one on, they didn’t need the other for now so they absorbed it back into their body; luckily for them the lighting charm only activates when given focus, like soul. They had to check that with the old lady before they left in worry they might accidentally look like a lumifly.

It was still broad day so it was probably in best interest to get back to work before they’re caught slacking off to buy items, jogging slightly they made their way back to Slys shop, hurriedly opening the door before collapsing back into their seat. Just at that moment did Sly poke their head around the corner, most likely checking they were still there, “huh, thought you would’ve left to spend your money, y’know? Like teens normally do?” From the tone Sly was speaking in it sounded almost as if he was disappointed in them, maybe Ghost should tell them that wasn’t the case? They weren’t too sure.

“Ah well, doesn’t matter, what’s the time?” Ghost glanced to the mini-clock on the desk, 21:32, “it’s around half-past nine”, Sly just made a humming noise, the kind usually associated with thinking. “Well, it’s pretty late, you should head off to get some rest”, Ghost could definitely use a break right now, and it’s not like any costumers were going to come in anytime soon.

Suddenly the noise of the front door opening set both Sly and Ghost to look towards it; right before them was a bug Ghost was hoping they wouldn’t see so soon, Lurien, but why was HE here? “Ah, is it that time of the month again? Stay put, I’ll get what you need” Sly spoke to Lurien with no problem at all, as if he wasn’t talking to one of the capitals co-founders, Lurien glanced at Ghost, “shouldn’t we do this exchange more... privately?” there was a blatant nervousness in his voice.

“Doesn’t matter, not like their gonna see anything really”, Sly walked out to the back of the shop, the place they kept all the items that they were planing on selling at a later date and, after a horrible couple of minutes of just both Lurien and Ghost avoiding each others view as much as possible, Sly FINALLY came back out carrying a box of some kind, “don’t use them all at once, I can only make so many”, Lurien just dumbly nodded, placed the geo on the till, and then wobbled out with as much courage as a lifeblood seed.

Ghost slowly turned their head towards their tiny fly boss, “what was that!” They whisper-yelled, “Lurien’s a frequent costumer of mine, though he usually only comes for one thing only, and he prefers to stay very discreet” Sly explained like it was the simplest thing ever to exist, “what’s he buying then?” Ghost somewhat demanded, “candles” and with that Sly just walked away with that piece of knowledge left to float in the air.

For the next few moments all Ghost could do was try to link any clues they knew to make sense of any of this; they knew Lurien enjoyed candles, that was obvious from his room back at the spire, but sly was the supplier? And the crafter? Of course Ghost had seen candles littered around Slys room, but never did they think he was MAKING them. Maybe it was just some kind of hobby they enjoyed doing? But why candles out of everything? What’s so great about them? It made their head spin as they tried to patch all this information together into something more sensical.

But one thing they knew for sure was they were going to have to be very hidden from now on, from what they learned Lurien idolised the king in every way, and they definitely didn’t want to deal with any grand reveal that a vessel is currently residing in Dirtmouth all because Lurien couldn’t keep his trap shut.

Groaning into their own hand they stumbled into their room, closing the door before sprawling completely onto their bed, feeling around the edges of the still broken glass window. What a tire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I think I can successfully say that I’ve crossed 10,000 words! Never done that before


	11. Trainin’ and painin’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally a training session, Ghost definitely needs it for sure.
> 
> Did I hear someone say you want more vessel babies? Oh? You didn’t? Well tooooooooooo bad, and Ghost is definitely scared of them, talk about an introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I decided I was going to put ant logic in this, y’know, the thing where they can hold up to 50x their own size, I think that’s what it is anyway?

At this very moment Ghost felt like they could just lie down and never get up again, Sly had been making all four of his students endlessly train since before the sun hit Dirtmouth, most likely for the nail championships. At first Ghost had assumed they were going to whizz through this easily, but it quickly became apparent that that was not the case; it started slow, running laps around the whole town, quite easy if you know the best routes. 

Then it morphed into something much harder, sometimes the exercises were downright maniacal it their own ways; each form of training was based around each students weaknesses. For Mato it had been his ability to manoeuvre, so Sly had decided the best way to become better was for Mato to dodge an endless entourage of nails, even now half of his body looked like it was covered in bandages from where nails had hit him and tore his flesh and chitin open.

For Sheo it was his athleticism, he was currently doing various acrobatic moves all in near failure, the sound of a body making harsh contact against the ground every few minutes or so was something very apparent; moans of agonising pain when he landed on one of his battered limbs was not something you could ignore in the slightest, especially when you would have to watch as he painfully pulled himself up only to repeat the process, only to fall down again.

Oro had it one of the easiest, but that didn’t mean it was good either; he was someone with not a lot of clear weaknesses, so instead Sly had dragged him to a lake not far away and forced him to fight any creature that may try to attack him in the water, ‘it also helps with your breathing’, Sly had told a very much hesitant Oro before shoving the back of his body and watching as the boy made contact with the water.

Finally was Ghost, someone who, like Oro, didn’t have many weaknesses; instead Sly was forcing them to train a different skill altogether, magic. ‘As the only student who can use magic it’s up to you to make a show that you’re competent with it’, didn’t sound that bad right? Except for the fact that they weren’t under any circumstances allowed to undo their ghost form, a little drawback they found about themselves was the fact their void was much weaker in the light, even when their body felt like it was burning and lurching, when it felt like poison was being shoved down their throat and into their body, they had to stay like this indefinitely.

That wasn’t the only awful thing about being stuck like this, they were supposed to actively be moving while in this situation, and as they had found, that would most definitely waste their soul, but when they tried to convey this to sly he brushed them off, ‘this is how people increase their quantity’s of soul, by pushing themselves to their absolute limits, how did you think people are possibly able to use spells an entire battle without wearing themselves out?’.

Their body was basically screaming at them, telling them to just rest and give up, but they just couldn’t, not until they proved they were worthy of being trained under Sly; in a push of energy they forced their sharp shadow charm to coexist with their ghost spell before dashing off with unheard of speed, and in that moment they felt unparalleled power rushing through themself.

Their victory ran short when they realised they were on track with a wall of stone; in surprise they accidentally turned back into a physical being before smashing their head full throttle with the cobble with a resounding crack, “that was great! Try doing that some more”, it was clear that it was Sly speaking to them; raising one hand to give a wobbly thumbs up before they felt whatever food that had been in their body travelling up their throat, throwing up on the ground in front of them. If hell did exist, this was definitely it for sure. 

That’s how the day continued, endless routines until all four students were collapsed on the ground by Slys feet, “what? Tired already? Hasn’t even been five hours yet, I’m sure you lot can go again for just a bit longer if you try”, his voice only got groans of agony in response; letting out a sigh Sly brought out a bottle of... something, opened the cap before drenching it onto his pupils, instantly their wounds began to numb, then heal right before their eyes.

“Today was a good warm up everyone!” Sly spoke before leaving his now healed students to scramble up from the ground, “warm... up?” Oro spoke in absolute fear, “he, he must be joking, right? Come on, Ghost, you live with him right? This must be some kind of inside joke?” His tone was absolutely desperate, but when all three brothers looked to their friend they saw Ghost stood absolutely stock still, clearly distracted, “hey, hey, Ghost” Mato snapped his fingers in front of Ghosts eyes to see if it would do anything.

Suddenly without warning Ghost lurched forward, taking rough, unusual movements, similar to someone drunk, quickly Sheo and Mato both grabbed Ghosts shoulders, “you ok there?” They both spoke in sequence, Ghost only responded with a whisper, “I’m sorry” Sheo spoke carefully, “what was that?” Once again, with more force this time, Ghost lurched forward again, just enough to get out of the brothers hold before they began sprinting towards the howling cliffs.

“What are you doing!?” Oro spoke in a near shout, “Dirtmouth’s the other way, numbskull!”, but still, Ghost carried on all full speed; looking at one another they nodded in agreement, they weren’t as fast as Ghost, but they sure could work as a team together to catch up. Sheo grabbed both his brothers arms, before twisting in a circular fashion, building up just enough momentum to let them both go with a massive boost in the air; “go get ‘em for me! I’ll catch up later!” The now faint voice of Sheo rang behind them.

Almost as if this was some kind of superhero story the two brothers seemed to glide through the air, gaining speed on the blurry image of their friend, though Ghost only spared the odd sight of Mato and Oro speeding towards them a quick glance before redoubling their efforts; with a resounding blow to the floor both brothers rolled with practised ease to lessen the impact before running after the void being with incredible gusto, from what they could tell, they were nearing the base of the cliffs side, they should soon be able to catch up.

Ghost only looked up the ominous wall for a fraction of a second before they pulled out their gloves, making the beginning process of the treacherous climb upwards in no time at all; “dammit, forgot about those gloves”, Oro quickly looked around for any kind of solution before landing his eyes on Mato, “Mato” the boy in question looked at him with confusion, “I’m gonna fling you up there”, Mato only took a step back, one arm raised defensively, “no way! That’s suicide!” Oro just raised an eyebrow, “do it, or I’ll tell Sheo it was you who took his fizzy drinks, don’t think I didn’t see you sneaking them out” Matos body completely froze up, before he dumbly nodded in agreement, not even questioning how his brother had seen him, considering they had double checked to make sure no one was around.

Quickly positioning themselves Mato was launched up the cliffs edge, by now Ghost was at the top, with only their legs scrambling to get over the top, but Mato was gaining quickly, only seconds away from his friend now. Hauling himself over the edge just as he saw Ghost do, now feeling the strain of doing all this so suddenly.

Once he had himself recalibrated he finally saw it, Ghost was leaning over a figure that looked very much like themselves, just smaller, from what Mato could tell this new bug was still alive based on its movements, “ghost... I... we gotta... go back” he was completely out of breath while speaking, gasping slightly; he only got a nod in return, Ghost positioned this new bug between their horns before they turned back, Mato decided now wasn’t the best time to ask what the thing on their head was.

Looking over the edge Mato only now realised how high up they were, “erm, do you have a way back down” he asked tentatively; Ghost only responded by wrapping one of their arms around Matos body before leaping off the cliff edge entirely, the sound of Mato screaming was very evident when transcending down the what-looks-to-be death trap, hoping gravity wouldn’t smoosh him to much. Once Ghost had reached the bottom fully unscathed they passed a very in shock Mato to their waiting brothers, “huh, didn’t know you were one of those kind of bugs, y’know? The kinds that don’t take much damage from falling from heights” Sheo had a surprised tone in his voice, while also passing Mato to Oro, “oh hey, what’s that on your head? Looks kinda like you”

Ghost left without responding, walking back to Dirtmouth without even acknowledging Sheos question in the slightest, they were angry, no, not angry, they felt like they were about to go ballistic with rage. It had happened so suddenly, they were about to ask Sly what he just used to heal all of them when they heard something, a plea of help, then that noise became a feeling, until it was almost agonising; before they knew it they were sprinting towards the howling cliffs against their will by an ability they knew all to well, puppeteering.

Of course, they should’ve known that some of the pale kings ability’s would’ve been passed down to his children, wings, enhanced intelligence, pale aura; and the worst of all, the ability to totally manipulate one to another’s will. It was an ability that SHOULDN’T exist; they remember when they had first been controlled when they had been born in the abyss, when they didn’t have the advantage of knowing about the future, or having the lord of shades to help, when they believed the pale king only wanted to help.

And now, NOW they had a product of the pale king in between their horns. They had decided long ago they were DONE with their siblings, wether void or not, they didn’t WANT to care anymore, they didn't want to get hurt again. The feeling of the vessel shifting on their head was evident, before they heard it speaking in void tongue, ‘another vessel? Sibling!’, Ghost harshly clenched their palms tight “I am NOT a vessel, nor do you have the right to call me your sibling”, of course, they didn’t expect the creature on their head to understand how much hate was left in each word, ‘not void? But I can feel it, and you can understand me!’ Ghost decided not to respond, only to leave the vessel on their head in confusion.

Now the silence was dawned on them they had time to really think, they wanted so badly to just ignore the fact that a vessel was here, to ignore that fact that this meant the death of tens of thousands of vessels have passed, but they knew that they couldn’t ignore the fact that the vessel on their head was the only family they really had at the moment, it felt so nice to have another made of void in such close proximity, like a warm sibilance.

Were they really this desperate? To completely abandon their own wants just to have a piece of familiarity near them, they had told themselves they wanted nothing to do with the pale king, even his children, and yet here they were, holding another of their kind in their horns, they were pathetic, really, really pathetic.

They knew it was going to take a long time before they could seriously think of another as family, they could tell whoever they met that this thing on their head was their sibling all they wanted too, but it wouldn’t change the fact they were somewhat fearful to be in their presence, to be with someone with an ability so dangerous, though it was possible the vessel didn’t even know they had such an ability. 

Ghost opened the door to the Slys shop slowly, not with any of the normal energy they would normally feel, with just as much motion they opened their bedroom door before placing their sibling on their bed so they could finally get a look at them, just like all the others this vessel had a small body, with a cloak that held a more green pigment over Ghosts blue, and on top on their head held an uncountable number of horns, if they had to take a guess they would say around twenty, all warping out to look like the root of their mother’s head; it was something Ghost had never seen before in any other vessel.

“I have no idea what to do with you”, ghost spoke while sitting themselves on the bed, getting ready to wait the night out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How 
> 
> Long 
> 
> Can
> 
> I
> 
> Make
> 
> This
> 
> ...
> 
> ...
> 
> ...
> 
> Huh
> 
> That’s
> 
> A
> 
> Lot
> 
> Actually

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading as always!


End file.
